Daughters craving their mothers' approval, mothers wanting more for their daughters than they had, daughters chafing at their mothers' need to control, mothers trying futilely to save their daughters from pain, each side convinced the other doesn't understand, all parties desperately seeking a cease-fire in the intergenerational war—such is the stuff of this painfully moving adaptation of Amy Tan's best-selling 1989 novel.
Four women, Chinese émigrés to modern-day San Francisco whose "hope was their only joy," have met weekly for more than 20 years to play mah-jongg and compare their lives. Through a series of voice-overs and flashbacks, we learn about the events that molded the women. There is perhaps an overly symmetrical quality to the movie—mother tells story, daughter tells her own story, daughter's experience reflects mother's experience. To the screenwriters' credit the pieces are stitched together almost seamlessly. That the characters in this beautifully performed movie are Chinese is in the end beside the point. It would be difficult to conjure any mother and daughter unable to identify with the women of The Joy Luck Club. (R)
Gabriel Byrne, Ellen Barkin, Ciaran Fitzgerald, Ruaidhri Conroy
Rare is the movie that parents can watch with their children, rather than just dozing in the next seat. How refreshing, then, to find Into the West, an Irish film rich in poignancy and humor, which will enchant adults as well as kids. (At least kids 7 and older; those younger may have difficulty following the plot and be scared by a drowning scene.)
West, written by Jim Sheridan and directed by Mike Newell, is about two young brothers (Fitzgerald and Conroy) who adopt a wild stallion and stable it in their 16th-floor apartment in one of Dublin's seedier projects. Delighted with their new pet, they feed it carrots and wash it in the bathtub. Their father (Byrne), a "traveler" (the Irish version of an itinerant gypsy) who has settled in the city after his wife's death, is too drunk to take notice. The neighbors, however, object to sharing an elevator with a horse and call the cops. A corrupt policeman sells the horse to a rich breeder. The boys steal it back and, making like the desperadoes in their beloved American cowboy movies, head out west on horseback to escape their pursuers.
The Irish-born Byrne, his handsome face a haggard wreck, is affecting as the tormented father; his real-life wife, Barkin, as a fellow traveler who helps him track his sons, does fine by her character and accent. The real stars of the movie, though, are Fitzgerald and Conroy, who play the brothers with grace and charm. (PG)
- Contributors:
- Joanne Kaufman,
- Leah Rozen.
Saved by the Bell Reunion
The hookups, the meltdowns, the memoires
The case reveals what was really going on what they think of each other now!
